Diane Abbott: Well, if we recruit the 10,000 policemen and women over a four year period, we believe it’ll be about £300,000.

If you divide £300,000 by 10,000 new police officers that's just £30 each in wages. It's more like £7.50 if you divide it by the four years Diane Abbott mentions above ...

Nick Ferrari: £300,000?

Diane Abbott: Sorry ... (Interrupted)

Nick Ferrari: 10,000 police officers? What are you paying them?

Diane Abbott: No, I mean, sorry ... (Interrupted)

Nick Ferrari: How much will they cost.

Diane Abbott: They will cost [long pause], it will cost, erm, about, about £80m.

Nick Ferrari: The £80m is the figure we use. But I don’t understand. If you divide £80m by 10,000, you get 8000.

This is still far lower than the £20,000 starting salary new officers generally make in their first year on the job.

Diane Abbott: What ... (Interrupted)

Nick Ferrari: Is that what you’re going to pay these policemen and women?

Diane Abbott: No, we’re talking about a process over 4 years.

Nick Ferrari: I don’t understand. What is he or she? £80m divided by 10,000 equals £8000. So I don’t, what are these police officers going to be paid?

[papers rustle]

Diane Abbott: We will be paying them the average ... (Interrupted)

Nick Ferrari: Has this been thought through?

Diane Abbott: Of course it’s been thought through!

Nick Ferrari: Where are the figures?

Diane Abbott: The figures are that the, the additional cost in year 1 when we anticipate recruiting 250,000 policemen will be £64.3m.

Here the shadow home secretary appears to promise that Labour would create 250,000 new police officers if elected. In fact, the pledge is to pay for just 10,000 new recruits over four years. It's likely Ms Abbott got confused and that the party intends to employ 2,500 new officers each year over four years.

Diane Abbott: No, we are recruiting 2000 and perhaps 250. And the cost ... (Interrupted)

Nick Ferrari: Where did 250,000 come from?

Diane Abbott: I think you said that not me.

Nick Ferrari: I can assure you - you said that figure because I wrote it down.

Diane Abbott:What I’m saying about the cost is in year 1 obviously we’re getting ready to recruit, but in year 2 the cost will be £64.3m, in year 3 the cost will be £139.1m, year 4 the cost will be £270m, and year 5 the cost will be £298m, and that can be amply covered by reversing the cuts in capital gains tax.

Labour has already promised to spend money gained by increasing capital gains tax on a number of different policies. In August, Jeremy Corbyn pledged the money for arts funding and in June last year he said it could pay to cut class sizes in schools. In March he said the money should be spent on welfare.

Sky Transcript – key sections

Sarah Jane Mee: Ok, but just going back, you have said that reversing cuts to capital gains tax will help arts funding schools and welfare – will that be in the manifesto fully costed?

Diane Abbott: Our policies will be fully costed, and I have to say I think it suits the Tories not to talk about the loss of 20,000 police officers, not to talk about the rise in violent crime, but to quibble about figures. Our manifesto will be fully costed and what people want to know, they want answers to their worries about the rise in violent crime.

…

Sarah Jane Mee: Well [the Conservatives] are saying it’s nonsensical because you’ve already spent this money when talking about other pledges – you’ve committed to – the capital gains tax – the money you’ll get from that – that £2bn – to things like schools, welfare and the arts, so you’ve already spent that money – how can you spend it on 10,000 police officers.

Diane Abbott:We’ve not actually committed that money to anything, we’ve used these huge cuts in capital gains tax, cuts which will only help the top 5%, we’ve used them to illustrate the type of places where we could get the money to fund some of our policies, but as we roll out our manifesto, you will see that each policy pledge is specifically costed, and this is a really important issue – the rise in violent crime on our streets.

Diane appears to suggest here that policies already announced by Labour may not be included in the manifesto, or new money may have to be found to pay for them. It follows claims that the party has already pledged money raised by increasing corporation tax 12 times to pay for things like education.

...

Sarah Jane Mee: But you’ve made promises – Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell, have all stood up and said by reversing capital gains tax, we will help tackle these problems.

Diane Abbott: You will find that we haven’t specifically allocated the money. We are rolling out our manifesto, and this morning I am specifically allocating some of the £2.7bn to funding the 10,000 policemen.

Abbott on the BBC's Daily Politics

Jo Coburn: Diane Abbott, that is hugely embarrassing, it's not just misspeaking, to quote you earlier, you just don't know your figures and you're not on top of your brief.

Diane Abbott: I do know my figures, I did 7 interviews that morning and that was the 7th.
If I didn't know my figures why was I able to do 6 other interviews and give the figures correctly
and you need to ask why the Conservative party is so anxious to move the debate away from the 20,000 police officers...

There are questions about whether Diane Abbott did mention the figures in the other interviews she conducted throughout the morning. Reports suggest she did not, and that they were brought up for the first time by Nick Ferrari on LBC.

Jo Coburn: We'll come to that.... never mind that you did 6 or 7 interviews, this is now an election, campaign front bench and Government ministers are expected to do reams of interviews, this was a major policy announcement for you ... you didn't know the figures.

Diane Abbott: I did know my figures and if you'd listen...

Jo Coburn: Why didn't you say them then?

Diane Abbott: Because I mis-spoke as you heard. If I didn't know my figures I wouldn't have been able to repeat them correctly 6 times.

Abbott repeats the claim that she had previously got the figures correct, but this doesn't appear to be the case as they did not come up in other interviews and were not mentioned in a press released about the announcement.

Jo Coburn: Which other interviews did you correct them? ... You didn't mention the figures at all.

Diane Abbott:I did 6 other interviews

Abbott doesn't repeat the claim that she mentioned the figures in other interviews after Jo Coburn accuses her of failing to bring them up earlier.

Jo Coburn: But you didn't mention the figures in those other interviews, you decided to talk about the figures and they are basic figures. £300,000, which as Nick Ferrari said would have meant £30 per police officer, that's embarrassing. You were struggling to correct that figure, did you actually not know them at all and you were guessing when you were asked about it on air or what is your excuse?

Diane Abbott: I knew the figures because I have repeated them many times.

Jo Coburn: You haven't, I haven't heard you repeat them at all, I've just heard them in that interview.

Diane Abbott: Well I can repeat them now and I am concerned that you don't want to talk about policing which is something the public is concerned in, particularly the rise in violent crime, and you want to go over and over a Nick Ferrari interview.

Abbott appears to try and deflect claims that she doesn't know the figures by blaming journalists for asking her about the mistake.

Jo Coburn: But that's your fault Diane Abbott, you want to talk about the issue and we were all prepared to talk about policing and the claims you are making that police forces have been under funded and you want to recruit more officers, but by going on air in a major interview where you just completely fluffed the figures, whether you knew them and chose not to say them or you couldn't remember them it doesn't do your cause any good.

Diane Abbott: The public will understand that you're not willing to talk about the real issue and the real issues are we have lost 20,000 police officers since 2010 and we're seeing a rise in violent crime.

Jo Coburn: You want to be home secretary, how do you think an interview like that ...we couldn't find the figures in a press release earlier by the way so I do dispute you claiming you did know those figures ...and if you didn't know those figures how can you claim to want to be home secretary in charge of the police forces of England and Wales? Do you think you have instilled confidence in either the police forces or the voters?

Diane Abbott:People that listen to any of the interviews that I gave this morning with the exception of the LBC interview will know I do know the figures.

Again, Abbott claims that she mentioned the figures in earlier interviews when she did not.

Jo Coburn: We are going to talk about policing ... people will be worried that you are not across what you should be in terms of those briefings, you came on the airways as a key part of your policy ... do you think it's important to attach the right figures in this election?

Diane Abbott: Of course I think that that's why I attached the right figures in 6 interviews out of 7. I also think it's important that a major programme like yours is prepared to talk to the Labour spokesperson about policing because people deserve to know what the Labour party is saying.

Again, Abbott levels her complaint at the media for asking her why she failed to get the figures right.

Jo Coburn: Alright well let's talk about how you're going to pay for it which is by reversing the capital gains tax, what level of capital gains tax will it be under Labour?

Diane Abbott:We are going to reverse the cuts to capital gains tax in order to fund a number of things ...

Abbott fails to set a new rate of capital gains tax and appears not to know what the current levels are.

Jo Coburn:[Interrupts] I understand that but what level, what level will it be?

Diane Abbott: ... Including the 10,000 police officers. Let me say why it's important to have 10,000 more police because we've lost 20,000 under Theresa May and we've seen a rise in violent crime, we currently have some of the lowest rates of capital gains tax in Europe.

Abbott fails to name the capital gains tax figure or what Labour would increase it to for a second time.

Jo Coburn: Right so what are they? If you win the election what will you reverse the cuts to be? What will the two levels of capital gains tax be?

Diane Abbott:We will bring them back to where they were before.

... and a third time

Jo Coburn: ...and what are those levels?

Diane Abbott: The point is it will save us £2.7bn and that's what were going to use to pay for the 10,000 police men and other areas of our manifesto ... we will produce a manifesto that is costed and paid for and we hope as the campaign goes on, people like yourself will be more willing to talk about the issues.

... and a fourth time.

Jo Coburn: And we will but voters want to know they can trust you with the figures and just one last time, because I feel you really don't know what the levels of capital gains tax are now and what they will be if you did reverse them, yes it would raise £2.7bn but what would the levels of capital gains tax be?

Diane Abbott:It's not the figure that we've put out, it's the figure in the Government's red book that if you reverse the cuts the Government has announced we would raise at least £2.7bn and we believe we can put that money to better use than on tax cuts for the top 5 per cent.

... that's five times Abbott fails to name the current or future rate of capital gains tax.